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This is significant because Downing Street had always insisted that Peter Cruddas was a minor figure - and here he is seen boasting about his closeness to the Prime Minister.

It also adds weight to the accusation that Downing Street hasn't come clean about the numbers of donors the Prime Minister met at Chequers.

Number 10 will insist this is insignificant - but the Labour Party will no doubt jump on this and say that Ed Miliband has been much more transparent about the donors and backers he's had dinner and meetings with.

William Hague has told ITV1's The Agenda that donors do not influence him on his foreign policies. Mr Hague said that "if anyone ever influences me on any policy it's somebody that I meet at surgery or somebody I meet in Afghanistan or Iraq".

Mr Hague denied the existence of a 'policy committee' and said: "Peter Cruddas resigned because he said some silly things. Things that he acknowledges were not true, that there was a policy committee- there isn't such a committee that donors can feed into".